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HGK Shipping, based in the German port of Duisburg, is testing a plan to navigate its vessels remotely from a control centre on land – Copyright AFP\/File Valeria Mongelli<\/small><\/em><\/p>\nL\u00e9a PERNELLE<\/em><\/p>\nWith the flow of new recruits into the seafaring sector drying up, a German company is exploring a potentially revolutionary measure \u2014 sending ships off without a captain on board.<\/p>\n
HGK Shipping, based in the German port of Duisburg, is testing remote navigation from a control centre on land.<\/p>\n
Driverless vessels are \u201cthe only solution to survive as an industry\u201d, HGK boss Steffen Bauer told AFP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average captain\u2019s age on HGK\u2019s 350 vessels is around 55, said Bauer, whose company claims to be the leading river cargo operator in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do nothing, we\u2019ll lose 30 percent of our sailors by 2030,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In search of a solution, HGK has signed a partnership agreement with the Belgian start-up Seafar, a leader in the emerging field of autonomous navigation.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2019, Seafar already operates four pilotless vessels in Belgium and has just opened an office in Germany, which represents 30 percent of Europe\u2019s inland shipping.<\/p>\n
The crewless ships are guided from a control centre, turning navigation from gruelling work into a potentially more attractive office job.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Cameras and sensors \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a market for remote-controlled ships,\u201d said Janis Bargsten, Seafar\u2019s commercial director, adding that establishing a regulatory framework would take less time than perfecting the technology.<\/p>\n
In Duisburg, Seafar and HGK have already created a centre for autonomous navigation and are awaiting the approval of the German authorities to launch their first vessels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the initial test phase, two captains will remain on board the remotely guided ships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The longer-term aim is to eliminate the captain\u2019s role completely while still keeping some crew on board, Bauer said.<\/p>\n
The technology is similar to those used in self-driving cars: the ships are fitted with sensors, cameras, radar and lidar, transmitting data in real time to the command centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is as it would be on board a ship,\u201d navigator Patrick Hertoge told AFP in Duisburg next to 10 monitors displaying the status of a autonomous barge on its way to Hamburg.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Life on land \u2013<\/p>\n
After 30 years skippering his own barge, 58-year-old Hertoge was recruited by Seafar to work on the autonomous shipping project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The son of two sailors, he sold his vessel and found a home on dry land for the first time in his life, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a boat, you are on standby 24 hours a day. But here, after eight hours, I can go home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Seafar wants to start more pilot schemes in Europe and is in \u201cadvanced\u201d talks with the French inland waterways authority. It is also planning a test project in the Baltic Sea, Bargsten said.<\/p>\n
Autonomous navigation could bring \u201csignificant relief\u201d to an industry under pressure but would not solve \u201call problems\u201d, according to a spokesman for the German federation of inland shipping (BDB).<\/p>\n
\u201cNew questions of responsibility\u201d require legal clarification, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Bargsten, in the event of a technical problem, Seafar would be liable, but a human error would be chalked up to the shipping company,\u00a0<\/p>\n
And remotely navigating a vessel is still a highly demanding job that could not just be left to \u201cgamers\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
With years of real-life captaining under his belt, Hertoge is convinced it can work.<\/p>\n
Much of the work of captaining a ship is the same on land as it is in a control room, he said. The only thing missing is the wind.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
German group mulls remote-controlled ships to fix skipper shortage
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#German #group #mulls #remotecontrolled #ships #fix #skipper #shortage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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